Ever since I sent in my submission for the talent hunt, I can’t stop following his twitter feed obsessively. He’s already sent out an e-mail letting us know he’ll send us a message regarding our submissions when he gets to it, but for some reason I persist. Not sure what I’m hoping to see. I think subconsciously I’m hoping for something like “WOW, Mark Maia’s script is fan-dabby-dozy-tastic. Sorry you other 1100 people, better luck next year”… I know, I know, chances of that happening are…well… ok, it’s probably not going to happen, not like that anyway. I mean I still think I have a chance of getting the gig, but then again, so do over a thousand other people.

Matt…um I mean, Mr. Hawkins (in case you are reading this, I have the utmost respect) has got a lot of scripts to read, and a lot of those are going to be bad, and that can change a man. I mean a few bad scripts can suck the life out of you. I guess what I’m trying to say is… I hope the bad scripts will make mine stand out a winner, rather than put the man reviewing them in a bad mood… you dig?

In Mr. Hawkins’ email, he mentioned that our odds of NOT getting the gig were 99.64%… wow, that’s a harsh bit of reality right there. But I do believe, if “wanting it” bad enough plays a factor, well… in that case, I’d put my odds of winning up against every last one of those competing.

Thanks again for all those at Top Cow who gave us this great opportunity.

As you all already know, I submitted a script to the Top Cow Talent Hunt. I’ve posted out-takes from the script in the past, but now I’m posting the script in full, for any of you interested. Keep in mind, these are not my characters. All characters in this story are from the Top Cow universe, as per the rules outlined in the submission guide lines.

So, here it is. I’ve included both the script and synopsis. Enjoy!… I hope.

Now that both my Top Cow Talent Hunt submissions are sent off, I can get back to working on So-Called living.

After showing Jamie my Top Cow script, he asked if I could format our So-Called living scripts the same way. You see, what’s different about my So-Called Living scripts, is that my descriptions were vague, on purpose, for two reasons. 1: I see Jamie everyday and we talked through every panel in person. 2: As an artist I assumed he would want the freedom to express himself, and not be tide down to my vision of things. So here’s where I went wrong…

Drawing a comic is a lot of work and according to Jamie, he would rather me break the panels down for him, so he has “less thinking to do” (his words not mine); Thus allowing him to focus more on creating the art asked of him, and less about directing the story itself. Fair enough.

Also, I never broke the story up into pages (panels yes, pages no). I did this to put less constraints on Jamie’s creativity, but now I see the errors of my ways. My panels were labelled, PANEL 1 – PANEL 90. Not a good idea.

So that leaves me with my latest task. I have to go back to book 1, expand on my descriptions and break my panels up into pages. So far it’s taking me longer to do that than it did to write the story in the first place.

I did it! I finally sent in my Top Cow Talent Hunt submission, and it feels good. I can breathe again. Writing that thing stressed me out man. I started doubting everything I wrote. It gets to a point where you’re so close to something you have no idea what you’re even looking at anymore. The worst part is… when you reach that point, a single negative comment, can easily drown out any amount of praise received.

I figure once the deadline passes, I’ll post my submission here. That way you guys can take a read and let me know what you think.

After much feedback from those who read my script, it seemed as though the majority of readers thought it best to remove this scene due to pacing. So here it is, the scene that slowed it all down… according to some.

This portion of the script was removed before it was proofed, so expect a few grammatical errors here and there ;)

Part way through Page 10

PANEL 2: Finn walks away from the booth and towards the bar. Ian uses his hands to drag his legs into the booth. Like a guy in a wheel chair would.

Finn: Alright, sit tight and try not to kill anythin’ till I get back.

PANEL 3: Barkeep pushes the last large piece of ice off the bar (where Ian’s arm was frozen). He uses two hands because it’s heavy. I want to show that through all that’s transpired, the barkeep is still concerned with keeping a clean bar. These next few panels with the barkeep are meant to settle readers into the vibe of the pub and its patrons, now that the situation with Ian has been defused. Show me as much of the pub in these panels as you can (but don’t kill yourself).

SILENT PANEL

PANEL 4: Close up on the floor as the chunck of ice hits and shatters. We also see Finn’s hand reach down and pick up one the stools knocked down on page 2&3.

SFX: CRASH

PANEL 5: Barkeep is wiping down the water left on the counter from the ice. Finn is just about to sit in the stool he picked up.

Barkeep (small text, white bubble): Should have stayed in law school.

Page 11

PANEL 1: Tight on Finn as he leans on the bar in the direction of the barkeep.

Finn: *Ahem*

PANEL 2: The barkeep is still wiping the counter. Finn is leaning on counter, talking to the barkeep, but slightly looking over his shoulder in the direction he came from. He’s keeping an eye on Ian (who’s off panel).

PANEL 4: A shot of the patrons going about their business. It’s from the barkeeps perspective. We see Finn is in the foreground. There are two guys still sitting by the broken window, they look cold but they’re still drinking. Outside the window we see one of the waitresses, with a hammer in hand, nails in her mouth, and looking really cold. She’s getting ready to nail a board up over the window. We see the edge of a big plank of wood, leaning up against the outside of the building.

Finn: Ye people gotta work on yur priorities.

PANEL 5: Same panel as above, but progress the waitress in her task of getting ready to fix the window, and slightly adjust the drinking actions of the patrons (beers up, beers down, etc).

SILENT PANEL

Page 12

PANEL 2: Ian has his head resting on his arms (like a kid sleeping in class), still holding the sword. We see a close foreground shot of Finn coming into frame, casting a shadow on Ian. We can’t see what Finn is holding in his hands.

SILENT PANNEL

PANEL 3: Two beers hit the table (pints of Guinness) and get Ian’s attention. It’s like a student woken up by his teacher… but drunker. The glasses of Guinness look frosted. This is another subtle sign of Finn starting to lose control of his powers. FYI: Beer is not served cold in Ireland, this is Finn causing it.

SFX: CLUNK

PANEL 4: This shot is from Ian’s perspective as Finn leans in on his forearm, looking Ian/the reader right in the eye. Fin has got his beer in one hand, close to his chest, and his form crossed in front of it as he leans in.

Marc Silvestri and Matt Hawkins are looking to give an unpublished writer a chance to break into comics. It was about 2 months past when I read about the Top Cow talent hunt on Twitter, which baffles my mind. I mean, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve gotten anything really useful out of Twitter. To say I was excited about the opportunity would be an understatement.

For the first month I was in research mode, reading as much as I could get my hands on. Let’s not forget I have a full time job. 15 year old me would have read through that many comics in a single sitting. After the research was done, it was time to start writing, and write I did. Currently I’m in the final stages of my script, waiting on the last bit of feed back to come in.

What does this mean for So-Called living? Good things I hope. The talent hunt rules, limit me to work with a select few characters, so this is NOT my So-called Living submission, what it is, is a chance to get noticed. Even if I don’t get picked for the 2 slots available, I hope my script will at least make an impression. And who knows… maybe that impression will carry on to people’s opinion of my So-Called Living submission… whenever that happens of course.